All that’s left in Rockford Ponzi scheme trial is the verdict

Saturday

Dec 7, 2013 at 3:00 PM

ROCKFORD — Federal Judge Fred Kapala still has not indicated when he will issue a verdict in the trial of Anthony D’Agostino, the former CEO of Commercial Mortgage & Finance, who was charged with running the failed business as a Ponzi scheme.

The trial ended at the end of September. Kapala asked both the defense and prosecution to submit closing arguments by brief rather than in open court. The U.S. Attorney’s office submitted its closing arguments on Oct. 25. D’Agostino’s defense team, led by Chicago lawyer Scott Lassar, submitted its closing arguments on Nov. 4 and the government submitted its response to those arguments on Nov. 12.

U.S. Attorney Scott Verseman, who is leading the prosecution, said it took longer than anticipated for both sides to submit closing arguments because they had to wait for completed trial transcripts.

D’Agostino was charged in December 2012 with 17 counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud after a lengthy investigation. Commercial Mortgage & Finance, founded in 1929, collapsed in October 2008. It had 1,400 investors owed more than $63 million. The bankruptcy court has recovered about 25 percent of what investors lost.

The government believes the Ponzi scheme — selling promissory notes and using the proceeds to pay off previous investors, not buy investments — dates to at least August 1997 until the company went bankrupt. D’Agostino bought the company in 1996.

D’Agostino’s defense was that Commercial Mortgage was the victim of the Great Recession. The company had made a significant number of loans to developers as well as homeowners, and when the real estate bubble burst in 2007, the company ran out of money as investors tried to pull their money out.

D’Agostino requested a bench trial, so Kapala will decide his guilt or innocence.